In a news conference in Charleston, company officials also pointed a finger back at the federal regulators who had repeatedly cited them for safety violations before an explosion killed 29 miners on April 5.

Hey, only 47 of the most serious type of violation orders in the last five months…it’s not like there was any wrongdoing on the company’s part. Those 52 people who have died on Massey property the last decade, just the cost of bigger bonuses for management doing business.

…the [Arizona immigration] law is so hard to defend that Sen. John McCain, facing a hard-right primary challenge from a supporter of the measure, spoke a few words of praise but nevertheless could not bring himself to cheer the new police powers.

Arizona’s Act of Vengeance Arizona’s draconian new immigration law is an abomination—racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean-spirited, unjust. About the only hopeful thing that can be said is that the legislation goes so outrageously far that it may well be unconstitutional. By Eugene Robinson

Arizona’s draconian new immigration law is an abomination—racist, arbitrary, oppressive, mean-spirited, unjust. About the only hopeful thing that can be said is that the legislation goes so outrageously far that it may well be unconstitutional.

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Shorting Democracy The GOP has now gone on record officially as saying it wants to block the Senate from even discussing a financial reform bill. When it comes to reform, they don’t want the democratic process to take place at all.

Fox News’ Dana Perino and Byron York of The Washington Examiner channeled Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) criticism of Democrats for reportedly planning to pursue immigration reform legislation before a climate change bill. But last month, Graham himself reportedly called for President Obama to “step it up” on immigration reform efforts.

Graham himself reportedly called on Obama to “step it up” on immigration reform

In March, Graham reportedly called for Obama to “step it up a little bit” on immigration reform.Politicoreported on March 10 that Graham “said Obama’s lack of direction on immigration reform is hampering Graham’s efforts to recruit additional Republicans to the cause.” Politico then quoted Graham as saying, “At the end of the day, the president needs to step it up a little bit. … One line in the State of the Union is not going to do it.” The Washington Monthly‘s Steve Benen highlighted Graham’s comments to Politico on April 25.

Politico: White House “puzzled” by Graham’s reaction in wake of his “step it up” remark. On April 25, Politico reported Graham’s comment that “[m]oving forward on immigration … is nothing more than a cynical political ploy” and then noted:

White House officials were puzzled by the vehemence of Graham’s reaction — especially after Graham told POLITICO in March that President Barack Obama needed to “step it up” on a comprehensive immigration reform proposal he’s been crafting with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Perino, York advance Graham’s claim to have been “double-crossed”

Perino: Graham has “gotten screwed around.” On the April 26 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, discussing Democrats’ plans to move forward on immigration reform ahead of climate change legislation, Fox News contributor Dana Perino said that Graham has “gotten screwed around and he finally said, ‘you know what? I’m not going to put up with this,’ and he’s walking away.”

York: “Graham’s angry words … suggest a man who believes he’s been double-crossed.” In an April 25 Washington Examinercolumn, chief political correspondent Byron York wrote: “Graham’s angry words — senators don’t usually throw ‘phony’ at each other — suggest a man who believes he’s been double-crossed. And indeed, a talk with aides familiar with what happened reveals a senator who thought he had [sic] deal only to find out — mostly from press reports — that he didn’t.” York also wrote:

Saturday afternoon, a clearly angry Graham decided to go public with his version of what happened, releasing an extraordinary open letter accusing Reid and other Democratic leaders of engaging in “phony” and “cynical” political maneuvering by dumping energy and climate in favor of immigration. Reid, of course, is in deep trouble in his re-election fight in Nevada, where about 26 percent of the population is Hispanic. President Obama hopes to increase Hispanic voting and fire up the Democratic base to avert potentially disastrous Democratic mid-term losses across the country. Pushing aside the energy and climate bill — which had at-best iffy prospects in the Senate, anyway — for “comprehensive” immigration reform might possibly save a few Democrats. Or at least Reid. Of course, at the moment there’s no bill and no real probability that one could pass, but some Democrats apparently believe even a losing fight could help them politically by motivating the base.

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Ex-SEC Official’s Pitch To Prospective Client: I Promoted The Guys Who Filed Complaint Against You “I am friends with and helped promote two of the guys who signed the Complaint against Mark. Someone should tell Mark to look at my profile on my firm website, my SEC press releases, and advise Mark to add me to his defense team.” Those are the words of former SEC Fort Worth enforcement chief Spencer Barasch, in a 2008 email pitching his services to a person close to Mark Cuban, the billionaire Texas businessman then facing an SEC insider trading complaint.

Elaine Marshall (D) leads with just 23%, followed by Cal Cunningham (D) at 19% and Ken Lewis (D) at 10%.

If no one gets a majority, the top two candidates advance to a run off in June.

The latest Public Policy Polling survey also shows 34% of voters undecided. “And out of the 66% who do have a preference, only 60% of them say that preference is set in stone with the other 40% saying they could change their minds between now and next week.”

Alan Simpson’s Secret Plan to Save Social Security Have you heard Alan Simpson making fun of the Social Security beneficiaries who drive up to their gated community in a Lexis? How many times? How many have heard his quip comparing the Grey Panthers to the Pink Panther? That…

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Beck calls Bush a ?progressive,? says Obama is doing ?exactly? the same thing. The tea party movement is staunchly opposed to big government and deficits, but right-wing activists and their supporters have been unable to explain away the fact that former President Bush, not their nemesis President Obama, is responsible for the majority of the current deficit, not to mention the greatly expanded size of the federal […]

The tea party movement is staunchly opposed to big government and deficits, but right-wing activists and their supporters have been unable to explain away the fact that former President Bush, not their nemesis President Obama, is responsible for the majority of the current deficit, not to mention the greatly expanded size of the federal government. Fox News host Glenn Beck offered a convenient explanation on his radio show today — Bush is a “progressive,” just like Obama:

BECK: What has [Obama] done that is different? I think he’s done exactly what George Bush was doing, except to the times of a thousand. I mean we’re talking about a progressive. And George Bush was a progressive. It’s the difference between a steam train and the space shuttle.

Mining lobbyist: ?The president has parked his tanks on our front lawn.? Luke Popovich, NMA This weekend, as President Barack Obama traveled to West Virginia to mourn the deaths of 29 miners in the Massey coal explosion, the mining industry attacked the president with militant right-wing rhetoric. Obama has supported the U.S. coal industry with an agenda of investing “huge subsidies” in the advanced coal technology that he […]

Luke Popovich, NMA

This weekend, as President Barack Obama traveled to West Virginia to mourn the deaths of 29 miners in the Massey coal explosion, the mining industry attacked the president with militant right-wing rhetoric. Obama has supported the U.S. coal industry with an agenda of investing “huge subsidies” in the advanced coal technology that he misleadingly calls “clean coal.” His administration has begun to crack down on the industry’s worst safety violators and most egregious practices like mountaintop removal, but has also announced that any limits on carbon pollution would not begin until 2011. The day before Obama praised coal as “the energy that powers our country and powers the world,” National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich attacked the president as a military invader of coal country:

You’d be hard pressed to find a president whose actions have been more warlike on coal. There are those who say the president has parked his tanks on our front lawn, and it’s hard to dispute that.

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On Sept. 11th, 2001 George Bush said he would catch bin Laden dead or alive.
He never did, we used to run a counter showing how many days it had been, but Obama finally took care of it for him. Just another Bush lie.

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The Hollywood Liberal started in 2004 at the height of the Bush Administration madness in America.
We were inspired by the late great Bartcop.com. The very first thing I did when the site started was to get arrested at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. My arrest at the start of a march from The World Trade Center was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. On New Years Eve 2014 the case was finally settled, with a judge awarding a class action suit that I was part of over $26 Million. I posted daily on the blog up until the end of The Bush error, and the site is now run as a history of the whole fiasco. Feel free to browse the old postings, pictures, & comics (an HL favorite) It reveals the twisted history of the times. Thanks H.L.